Rebirth Into Oblivion
by Yumizuki
Summary: Naruto's death caused Konoha's downfall, and his reincarnation never came back. Now, in the midst of bombings and rivals for love, his reincarnation is thrown back to Konoha in a time loop. Then, he faces a serious dilemma that will change everyone's live
1. Death

_**A/N Whaddya know? A new story! I have so many ideas to write down for about three stories more, so maybe I'll just post the first chapter of all and then see which is the best. And yes, this IS NaruSaku, even though it seems to be NaruHina in the beginning.**_

_**Better Summary: **__It was the death of Naruto so long ago that brought Konoha's destruction. Based on the legend that Jinchuuriki have their beasts reincarnted into the next body, Konoha waited for him...but he never came back. Reincarnated many years later as a high-school senior named Uzuto Naruhiko, his class visits the ancient remains of Konoha. There, he is sucked into a time loop that brings him back to Konoha between the time he died and the day Konoha fell. Everybody knows him, he knows nobody. At the same time, terrorist bombings are occuring in Japan. Naruhiko/Naruto finds himself in a dilemma--to save Konoha means advancing modern technology and possibly worsening the warfare. To destroy Konoha means destroying his past and his current family of friends. Between the finicky time loop distortion and rivals for his love, Naruhiko/Naruto must beat the clock and find a solution to his problem. _

* * *

_**Chapter 1: Death**_

"NARUTOOOOOO!!!"

He clutched his stomach area, his orange and black jumpsuit tattered and torn to the point where he was just wearing rags. The only warmth he could feel in the freezing weather was the warmth of his own blood spilling over his hands and coursing down his chin. With half-closed eyes, he scanned the scene—two newbie-Akatsuki dead and tracks from five other Akatsuki members who'd fled the scene.

The mission had failed.

He tottered forward a few steps towards Sakura who was running with all her might to treat him as soon as possible. He took a glimpse of Kakashi-_sensei_, Yamato-_taichou_, Sai, Team Gai, Team 10, and Team 8—all covered in crusting blood of the enemy, but unharmed. The Kyuubi had exploded at the last moment of desperation to attempt to fend off attacks, but in blind rage, he was unaware of all the attacks he'd taken in. He keeled over just as Sakura reached him.

The green ropes and threads of chakra were biting nips of cold that cooled his temper. As the chakra was stitching over his burst spleen and torn intestines, but he could not help but feel that he would not make it. He had hope, however, that the best _iryou_ ninja in all the ninja villages next to Tsunade-sama would be able to save him.

The foggy mist characteristic to Kirigakure was playing illusions on him. He could not tell if his mind was clouding over, or if the ambient area was just like that. He could not move, he could barely think, but he said…

"Please don't kill my dream…Don't let me die, Sakura-chan…"

It was too young to die at age seventeen, no?

He did not hear her piercing scream that echoed for miles when he exhaled for the last time.

--------X--------

A lone, marble headstone reflected the flashing lightning and seemingly countered the guttural low tones of thunder that followed. Drops of rain came down soft to the skin, but then became small, piercing _senbon_. Why it always rained when a person of importance in Konohagakure died, nobody would ever understand, but the weather did not detract the ragged population of Konoha from mourning.

A rosette stood alone at the edge of the crowd, gazing blankly at the marble tombstone that marked a man she could not save; more importantly, she could not save his dream. She would not be able to playful (and sometimes forcefully) reject a date from him, or hear his childish "Dattebayo!". All she could do was continue playing through her mind a poem of Jinchuuriki she had read from an ancient book that had fallen off its shelf in the library.

_He may Die young or old,  
But the One with the Beast of Konoha  
Will Return again,  
Stronger than before to  
Save the village  
That raised him so._

The rest of Konoha would wait for him, knowing that he was a powerful man who would lead the Will of Fire as the proudest citizen. He was an important asset to the village, both in defense and offense. He would come back someday to bring peace to the world.

But she, Haruno Sakura, would wait for him, Uzumaki Naruto, for a totally different reason: to confess and apologize of what she could not do. For her inability to save his life and dream, she wished she would die.

In the next few weeks, Konoha's defenses declined severely even with the lack of that one ninja, as fast a stone tossed up and falling back down to earth; a short time later, Konoha was annihilated by a strengthened Akatsuki force, the village's power and greatness reduced to only rubble and smoke.

His reincarnation failed the village.

* * *

**Two-thousand Years into the Future**

Seventeen-year-old Uzuto Naruhiko hated several things in his life: his cold-bastard classmates which included (but were not limited to) Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Nejiro, the lack of at least one bowl of ramen (preferably Ichiraku's "Sapporo Ichiban" Miso Ramen) per day, and goddamn it, ALARM CLOCKS.

The city of Sapporo, Japan, was a difficult place to wake up in, but it wasn't because a day was painfully annoying to look forward to. In fact, it was because the city was so exciting that one just had to stay up until wee hours enjoying every single second, and then crashing, completely exhausted into bed. Yesterday, Naruhiko had spent the rest of the day after school perusing the streets with his girlfriend, Hyuuga Hinami, and eating bowl after bowl of ramen until 11:30 P.M.

He had no choice today, however. Naruhiko could not ditch school today (as he sometimes did when he was too tired)—the senior-class mandatory field trip to the legendary Konohagakure ruins was today, and by mandatory, his school literally meant "rain-or-shine-sick-or-healthy-you-have-to-come" mandatory. The punishment was supposed to be extremely cruel, but Naruhiko had never heard anyone tell the tale—everyone was so obedient and scared that no one had ever suffered the consequences.

The last subway to school left at 7:00 A.M., and even waking up at 5:45 A.M. wasn't enough time, especially since Naruhiko shared the public bathroom with some bathroom-hogs in his apartment. His father died a year ago in a car accident, and his mother committed suicide the year before; they didn't leave much behind for him. Naruhiko wasn't rich or wealthy (unlike the Hyuuga's), but working part-time at the Ichiraku Ramen Bar did help him get by, somewhat. It was actually mostly thanks to Teuchi, the owner of the bar, who allowed Naruhiko to eat all he wanted at the bar for no cost.

Struggling out of bed with his blond hair tousled, he grabbed a disposable toothbrush and comb and headed down to the bathroom quickly. If he didn't get there quickly enough, Yamanaka Inoue-san would beat him there. She was infamous for taking more than fifteen minutes in the bathroom each time she entered.

After his trip, he headed back to his cramped apartment room and pulled on the school's uniform of a white-Oxford shirt and navy-blue pants. Then, he casually looped a loose tie around the casually-buttoned shirt and thrust open the curtains, welcoming the sun into his face. Stepping out onto the balcony, he gazed out into the rising sun, taking in as much of the horizon scene as his sky-blue eyes could absorb. Even though Sapporo was hell waking up in, a beautiful sunrise was always a reward for the early-birds.

Satisfied with his "eye-candy", Naruhiko backed up into his bedroom, not taking an eye off the sunrise. He was going to shut the curtains when his eye caught rosy pink clouds—and a screaming voice from within his mind almost split his head open. He tripped from the shock of the scream and almost pulled the curtains down with him as he fell to his floor.

You could say that was another thing worse than the alarm clocks that Naruhiko hated: that voice of despair that would sometimes randomly echo in his head—especially whenever he saw the color pink. Or those nightmares that started appearing just when he turned seventeen, comprising of strangely clad people with olive green vests and headbands of cloth and metal, surrounding him as he lay on the floor panting, his blood oozing out in a pool.

Or maybe he was officially going mad like his mother, Uzuto Kushina, who eventually hanged herself from their house's balcony across the city, where the Uzuto family first lived. Naruhiko never forgot the swinging body and how his eyes were transfixed on her red hair, which everyone praised for its rare beauty.

He gave an involuntary shiver and looked at himself in the mirror. The spitting image of his father, yet the hyper temperament of his mother—at least that was what everybody said. Naruhiko could never afford to be depressed (and he found that he almost could never be depressed), lest he wished to go the "emo" path as his classmate, Sasuke, whose entire family was deliberately killed by a mentally-ill older cousin, Itano.

At the thought of Sasuke, Naruhiko thought of school, and the time he'd wasted. He checked his watch: 6:30 A.M. _Kuso_. He would have to sprint to the subway station for at least twenty minutes non-stop now. Grabbing an Instant-Ramen package, Naruhiko prayed to _kami-sama_ that there would be some hot water in the teacher's staff room today.

Halfway to the subway, Naruhiko cursed again. He'd forgotten to write down a pre-lab for the field trip to the Konohagakure ruins they were going on today. He would have to ask Nara Shikamura, school genius, whether he could copy the work. But then again, Shikamura was so lazy and such a sleepy person that Naruhiko doubted that he would notice if Naruhiko just took the pre-lab in its entirety.

* * *

_**A/N Yes, I purposely changed the names of everybody in here, OK? Hope this is good for everybody! When I picked the city of Sapporo (to be different from the cliché Tokyo), I actually had no idea that the city WAS famous for its ramen until I did research on it! Well, jya! I'm going to be working on my "Date Showdown" (DS) story now :D! So for now, RIO ("Rebirth into Oblivion") will be slowly worked on when I have the time…yea.**_

**Edit:** Changed "Narumaki" to "Naruhiko". The latter flows better, and the meaning fits Naruto better. (Thank you, Naomi-Yoko!) Also changed "Itamo" to "Itano" (The meaning fits better as well.) Changed back to "Sasuke" (Easier for plot later). I will not use the same first names for reincarnations--the whole point is to be different. (Like in Pita-Ten)


	2. Meet a Problem, Meet the Crew

_**A/N TAKE MY NEW POLL—LOOK AT MY PROFILE FOR NEW UPDATES!**_

**_EDIT 11-27-07: Added more humor to the field trip section starting from the "classroom section". So go read that._**

_**Changed the summary from Chapter 1 a little bit. And. I. Got. Flipping. Banned. Again. Then I got yelled at. There's also an Internet Router block on YouTube and FF at home, but since I'm not living in my house right now, I can get on. Psh…anyways, I have to work on RIO because my ideas for DS are inaccessible. By the way, this story WILL BE TRAGIC. Even though I love science, I want to try to write from a perspective of someone who is an activist for many of the ethical issues posed from science. I will warn you that this story will not be a happy ending (even though it ends NaruSaku).**_

_**The italicized passages are the events that happened before Naruto's death.**_

* * *

_**Chapter 2: Meet a Problem, Meet the Crew**_

Still sprinting towards the subway, Naruhiko slurped down the dregs of the soup from the remainder of his Instant Ramen and hopped over a hedge. A security guard yelled at him, but Naruhiko ignored the authority; he'd never really paid much attention to policemen anyways—it wasn't like he could ever get caught with his speed. He cracked the chopsticks he'd used into half, placed them into the Styrofoam cup, and continued his crazy run. Naruhiko was thankful for the tea vendor who had kindly spared hot water to the blond to "cook" his ramen.

Now, to find a trashcan…there! From a hundred feet away, Naruhiko chucked his cup and chopsticks into the public wastebasket; the cup sailed into the target perfectly, not even hitting the rim of the trashcan. He'd added the exact amount of strength and the ideal amount of dexterity to the wrist just to get the light object to fly in a beeline.

As several pedestrians clapped, Naruhiko pumped his fists with a large grin on his face. Yet another shot again; he was so accustomed to eating ramen while running. He'd also found himself to be quite adept at these type of things, his hand-eye coordination superior to his classmates. The only three people who rivaled him in such skill were Nejiro, Rock Li, and Sasuke, and they—

"_Oi_! _Dobe Douji_! **(1)**" a familiar voice called to the right of Naruhiko.

Naruhiko quickly turned his head, almost tripping. He scowled as he saw his classmate Sasuke catching up to him. But Naruhiko quickly replaced the scowl with a smirk on his face and sneered, "Oh, so the Uchiha-_teme_ is late too? No surprise—you're flimsier than paper that even a breeze would slow you down. **(2)**"

Sasuke snorted and ignored yet another one of Naruhiko's puns. While brushing long, black attractive bangs out of his eyes, he said, "So, what makes you late? Did that bumming bitch Yamanaka hold you up in the bathroom again?"

Both boys leaped over a park bench and instantly found themselves stuck at a traffic light. As if believing his urging would tell the electrical currents of the traffic light to turn on the green light, Naruhiko decided on how to choose his words explaining why he was late. Sasuke _was_ a friend, and a very close one at that (even though his arrogance did carry over a little). But there were some things that you just kept to yourself—Naruhiko felt that this was such a case.

"No, today I just felt like arranging my hair all Chicken-Butt like yours, but apparently that didn't work out," Naruhiko snickered back. Dodging a punch from Sasuke, he said, "Besides, why are _you_ late?"

The traffic light ended its eternity in the slumber of red and woke up fresh and green. While both boys started their marathon sprint again, Sasuke aimed another punch at Naruhiko, which he missed again. Sullenly, he replied, "I was checking Itano's condition in the hospital. He frickin' wouldn't stop talking about planes. **(3)** He's crazy."

Sasuke had made sure to put an extra-firm grit into his reply. Naruhiko could understand the hate—losing all of one's family to a killer at age six was not easy to overcome. And yet, as the surviving family member of Itano, he was forced to do monthly check-ups on the man he hated most. Naruhiko had tried to tell Sasuke to move on as he had, but the latter swore that once Itano "got better", he'd beat him to a bloody pulp. And Sasuke _was_ serious. He'd even written a vow on it and given it Naruhiko for safe-keeping.

Bounding down three flights of stairs to the subway station, the boys heard the typical female announcer state that the subway headed towards Downtown Sapporo was leaving in two minutes. Naruhiko and Sasuke cursed, picking up even more speed—why did their subway have to be at the VERY END of the station? Both of them safely reached the door of the subway, but at that moment, a high-pitched voice squealed, "OMG! Sasuke-_kun_!"

Several things happened at once: a horde of girls crowded around the boys (centralized at Sasuke, mostly), the subway door began to close, and yet, someone with brutal strength reached out and yanked both Naruhikio and Sasuke into the car right before the door shut. The boys stumbled into seats, hacking from the near-suffocation of the pack outside.

An irritated voice twittered, "Really, those girls take a different subway than we do. Sasuke-_kun_, you need to stop being so attractive to others. Naruhiko, you need to get here earlier."

Naruhiko and Sasuke looked at each other with a glint of mirth in their eyes. Without even having to look up at their benefactor, it was easy to match up the characteristics pertaining to the speaker…They sarcastically sighed, "Oh, are we so sorry, Haruno Sakuma-sama."

* * *

_Sakura knocked on the door of Naruto's apartment at 10:30 A.M. No answer. She knocked harder, but there was still silence. She threatened, "Naruto! I'm going to punch out this door if you don't open it in—"_

_The door opened, and the blond sleepily trudged out and yawned, "_O…ooohaayo_, Sakura-_chan_…"_

_The_ kunoichi _suppressed a giggle and blush. Even as a medic-_nin_, she was unable to control Nature's hormones. Her attempts at an authority-laden voice proved difficult, and she ended up mechanically stuttering, "Tsu-Tsunade-_sama_ wishes to see us. H-Hurry up."_

"_Aww…I thought we were going on a date…_dattebayo,_" Naruto complained while shutting the door, but nevertheless, still shone off a bright grin. Once he closed the door, he made a hand seal and called out, "_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_!"_

_Sakura heard the bunshin help Naruto multitask by making breakfast and the bed, getting the day's change of clothes, etc. She burst out giggling, now completely unable to control herself any longer. This always happened every time she tried to get Naruto to prepare for a mission._

'_That Naruto...' she smiled thoughtfully. 'Maybe next time…'_

* * *

"_A-ano_…N-Naruhiko-_kun_? _Daijoubu deska_?" 

Naruhiko looked up to see Hinami staring worriedly down at him. Her flowing long hair smelled of jasmine this morning. Naruhiko smiled, and stood up to give her a "Good-Morning" hug and kiss.

Another rather raucous voice interrupted, "You guys still haven't even said, 'Good morning' to all of us yet! How self-centered."

A Chinese girl with brown hair done into buns was frowning at both Sasuke and Naruhiko. Her left arm was latched on Nejiro's arm, and her right arm was on her hip. She continued her rant, "Even Nejiro said 'Good morning' to all of us, and he doesn't even talk much or ride the subway that much. But _you_ two ride everyday, talk too much, and never greet us in a proper way. I'm gonna use you guys for archery practice after school if you do that again. Why don't you—"

"Do us a favor and kiss Tian Tian to make her shut-up, Nejiro," a boy with rimless glasses and spiky black hair down into a ponytail yawned. The daily paper was half-covering his face. He was sprawled over in three subway seats, unknowing of the chagrin of the other passengers that morning. "It works with Temari all the time."

Nejiro rolled his eyes and did not move at all…much to the slight annoyance of Tian Tian. She glared at her boyfriend, whose eye twitched. His face became a considerable shade of pink as he quickly pecked his girlfriend's cheek; he turned a full one-hundred eighty degrees to face the window on the other side of the subway, and refused to talk anymore.

Tian Tian rolled her eyes in turn, but just turned back around to face everybody and wrapped her arm around Nejiro again. In other words, she was linking arms with a backwards Nejiro. Then she started babbling again, "In China we normally ride bicycles instead of the subway and—"

Everybody groaned, and Nejiro hung his head low.

**o--------X--------o**

After painstakingly listening to Tian Tian talk about China's transportation devices, Naruhiko was finally able to ask, "So, what brings Nejiro and Hinami on the subway today? Don't you guys normally go to school in a limo or something? Actually, as a matter of fact, most of you guys ride the subway before this one."

"Sleepover at Tian's," Sakuma tersely said. "Woke up late."

"My hair wasn't cooperating with me this morning!" Inoue complained, attempting to straighten out her tangled ponytail. Her attempts were just as successful as trying to sit on clouds.

"Temari had a meeting with her younger bros Gaara and Kankuro," Shikamaru mumbled from under the paper. "Indonesia is undergoing torrential rains right now, and their Sand Inc. company needs to assemble thousands of sandbags to prevent erosion."

He turned over in his seats, and mumbled, "Troublesome woman—only her second year in college and she's dealing with business corporations."

Naruhiko rolled _his_ eyes, and said, "I'm always late, you know that. Sasuke was…visiting."

Nobody needed to question that.

Hinami started, "I-I wanted to…um…--"

"She wanted to hang out with the commoners today," Nejiro sighed, only to be almost punched by Sasuke. He continued shamelessly, "Even Hanami-sama was wise enough to follow Hiashi-sama this morning. But as a butler to the Hyuuga family, I must—"

"Shut the hell up already, Nejiro," Sasuke growled. "Commoners my ass."

An awkward silence took place as the Hyuuga and the Uchiha stared each other down, hoping that the other would look away. The poison emanating from Sasuke was extremely vile. He understood about his clan—everything about it. The fact it had also been a noble clan unrivaled to the Hyuugas, brought down from a massacre. Nejiro had no right to call him a commoner.

"Okay, okay…we understand," Sakuma stepped between the two boys to prevent a fight. She eyed the conductor at the end of the subway, who had already been making his way down to where they were. She hissed, "You two need to stop fighting. If the conductor came down here, it would've been the second strike for fighting."

With one last glare, the boys "hmphed" and sat down.

**o--------X--------o**

"Ya know, Sasuke?" Inoue pouted, her legs deliberately crossed over to reveal their slimness under her sailor skirt (which, like most girls, was breaking the dress code for length). "You should just pick Sakuma or me and get your girlfriend thing over with. You've never dated in your life, you know?"

"You wish, Inoue!" Sakuma flared, and snarled, "You know, you can be so repulsive at times!"

Inoue stuck her tongue out and stated in a matter-of-factly voice, "Don't tell me that your skirt isn't above the kneecap too, because it happens to be three inches above like mine. Hinami and Tian Tian's are both two and a half inches above. It's not like anybody cares."

Caught by such a simple remark, Sakuma began to splutter, "Y-You…Y-You k-know what?! That's…"

Bickering ensued between the blonde and the rosette, and this time, Tian Tian and Hinami had to jump in and save them from the conductor.

Sasuke muttered, "Obviously, I didn't get a say in this at all."

Naruhiko was trying to get Shikamura to lend him the Konoha Ruins lab to copy. Shikamura kept shaking his said and saying, "Nooooo. I've lent you my homework to copy exactly 39, 999 times already Naruhiko. So why don't you—"

With a sly grin on his face, Naruhiko whispered, "Now, now, 'Shika-kuuuuuun'."

Shikamura's teeth gritted at Naruhiko's impersonation of Temari's pet name for himself.

Naruhiko could see that his trick was working. He pushed it further and said, "Okay, 'Shika-kuuuuuun', I don't think anyone else needs to know that you and Temari were getting a little bit hot and heavy in that alley the other day. You, a high school student, and her, a second-year college student. It's good enough to make the school paper and—"

Shikamura sighed, and let out a huge breath. He whined, "And yet, you've always used this stupid blackmail for the other 39, 999 times. 40,000 now."

Naruhiko gleefully snatched away Shikamura's homework and furiously began to copy. When he was finished, he tossed the homework back to Shikamura, who was now frowning at the headlines of the "Major Topics" section of the paper.

"What's up?" Naruhiko asked, leaning over to see.

Shikamura read the headlines word-for-word, "Akuma Terrorists Strike Japan."

The group heard Shikamura and all of their eyes widened. Hinami squeaked, "Wh-What gr-group…?"

"Apparently, these Akuma terrorists, or known as 'Demon', have done random bombings at one in the morning. Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagoya, and Tokyo have been hit majorly. The Mitsue province is the worst out of all. Then the paper gives us a whole list of other cities that have burned a little, but they're all towards the coast lines far from Sapporo."

The glassed-boy scanned the article, and briefed everybody while scanning, "The damage is supposed to be more than what happened during World War II in Nagasaki. Police and investigators have no idea where they're striking next. Leader name is unknown except that the main bomber's name is 'Daradei' and his other partner is 'Tobei'. Daradei's previous partner was Sasoko, but apparently he died in a small fiasco in the bombing of Nagoya. Gender of all terrorists are unknown—approximately ten terrorists in all. All tips and helpful information are to be reported to the police."

Worry grabbed everyone in a tight grasp. Shikamura made it worse when he added on, "The worst part of this is that there is a pattern with the bombings because the police got a paper strip from the terrorists, but they can't figure it out. They've included a copy in the paper—I've looked at it, and I can't figure it out either."

There was pandemonium when everybody cluttered around Shikamura to take a look at the letters and symbols in the code, but nobody could make heads or tails of it.

Fear took root in everyone's heart.

What if the next place Akuma struck was Sapporo?

* * *

_Naruto stepped out of his room and breathed in the sweet scent of Konoha. He had no idea what the Godaime wanted to tell him, but he prayed that it would be a mission to bring back Sasuke. Or bust up some Akatsuki. Any mission was fine as long as it was a step towards bringing back his comrade._

_He jumped off the balcony and hopped along the rooftops of Konoha, occasionally passing by some familiar faces. Temari and Kankuro were actually visiting for two weeks (in which Naruto knew that the main purpose was so that Temari could spend some time with Shikamaru) to help prepare for the Chuunin exams. Gai-_sensei _was doing his morning training along with Lee (this time juggling balls with their feet while they ran on their hands around Konoha), while Neji and Tenten just stared at their comrades, dumbfounded both with their abilities and the stupidity of the exercise. _

"_Oi! Ino! Chouji!" Naruto called down to the street below. Ino and Chouji looked up and waved. Chouji was, as usual, stuffing his face with potato chips. "What's up?"_

"_We're heading over to the Hokage's!" Ino yelled back. "I think we're doing the same mission as you are! It's supposed to be a big one!"_

"_Oh goody, _dattebayo_!" Naruto joyfully grinned, rubbing his hands together. "What about everybody else?"_

_Chouji looked up and mumbled through his chips, "It's the Konoha 11 plus all the _sensei_s!"_

"_Awesome, _dattebayo_!!!"_

* * *

The gang stepped out of the subway, still slightly suppressed by the fact that there were some terrorist bombings. Before they could speak about the issue, somebody slapped Shikamura on the back and yelled, "Yo, Shikamura!! You're usually here earlier!" 

Shikamura fell flat on his face, his glasses flying away. Ino stepped up and said, "Chousu! You're going to crush Shikamura into a pancake if you continue that! You're such a fa—"

Chousu drew himself up to full height. Considered a "giant" at six feet-three and close to two-hundred fifty pounds, it was almost possible for him to bend a steel bar. He lived two blocks away from school. Ever since he went to school, his peers had always called him a "fat-ass" or "fatty"—he didn't know how to deal with it then until he met Shikamura. Both of them had hung out on the swings after school, and that was enough bonding time to get them to become BFF.

The next day, Shikamura had clearly said, "It doesn't matter whether your butt is kicked over by these kids, but you're probably the kindest person around," but Chousu had heard it as, "You should probably give them the kindness of kicking their butts."

And so, the last time anyone called Chousu fat was the next hour after Shikamura said that. The poor kid went home with two black eyes and a broken arm, and Chousu got detention. But it was worth it. Shikamura heavily denied saying anything about kindness to Chousu ever since.

Ino's voice died away, and she corrected, "I mean, you're such a big-boned person that Shikamura will turn into a pancake."

Chousu nodded his approval. Seconds later, Hinami was pounced on by a large red dog. Naruhiko caught her before she fell. He looked around for the owner, and sure enough, he called out, "Oi! Daikiba! Next time Akamaru jumps Hinami I swear I'm going to neuter him!"

"Heh, _gomen-nasai_…" a brown-haired boy grinned, scratching his head. A sun-glassed boy stood next to him as well. "Shinomaru's dad was treating him for fleas last night. He wanted to tag along today. I'll send him home right now."

With a whistle, Daikiba pointed down the street, and Akamaru bounded away from Hinami. She got up, and tenderly said, "_O-Ohayo_ Daikiba-_kun_, Shinomaru_-kun_."

The sun-glassed boy only nodded, and said in a low voice, "We should be off now."

**o--------X--------o**

As the group climbed the stairs, Sasuke said, "Did you guys hear about the Akuma terrorists?"

Shinomaru solemnly nodded. He muttered, "I have a few family members in Fukuoka. Their conditions are unknown."

"I'm sorry, Shinomaru…" Sakuma consoled him, her eyes sad.

They reached their classroom, where the entire class was buzzing over the attacks. Newspapers were spread all over the floor and desks, with groups of kids huddled over a desk that had a newspaper like swarms of bees.

A hyper-active voice called, "OMIGOOOOOOSSSH!!!!!! IT'S THE EXTREMELY YOUTHFUL COUPLE NEJIRO AND TIAN TIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A blur flew by Nejiro and Tian Tian. Nejiro poisonously said, "Rock. Li. Shut. The. Hell. Up."

"OHAYO GOZAIMASU!" Rock Li shouted, completely ignoring Nejiro. "YOU GUYS ARE SLIGHTLY LATE TODAY! THE SPRING OF YOUTH DOESN'T WAIT FOR ANYBODY!"

A teacher outside the door busted in and gave Li a hug, screeching as loud, "Li! You're right! Let's run towards the sunset!"

"Right, Maito-sensei!"

And so, the two ran off towards some random and physically impossible weather of this time of day.

Sakuma's eyes twitched as she mumbled, "What the heck just happened?"

Li came back a few moments later bouncing around Sakuma and attempting to ask her out. Sakuma just kept shaking her head, with everybody else trying to peel Li away from her.

It wasn't long until the teacher burst in and called, "OKAY, ALL OF YOU GUYS, SIT DOWN!"

The newspapers disappeared into desks and backpacks, and the huddles broke up. Silence reigned.

The teacher was a blonde and busty sort of lady. Unfortunately, she was also the principal, making the class that the gang was in the most advanced class. She snarled, "Oh, not even a 'Good Morning' to me?"

The class stood up, and greeted while bowing, "_Ohayo gozaimasu_, Tsudane-_sensei_."

"Much better," Tsudane nodded, and paced around the class. She spoke, "I'm sure we've all heard about the bombings that have happened today. I extend my sympathy to those who may have lost any family members in the attacks. I will NOT, however, extend any sympathy to those who did NOT do their pre-lab for the Konohagakure Ruins."

She stared particularly hard at Naruhiko, who stared back. Tsudane extended a hand towards him. Naruhiko rolled his eyes, pulled his lab out of his pocket, and handed it to her. Tsudane was miffed that she couldn't "get" Naruhiko today. With a sigh, she announced, "Hand your pre-labs to the person in front of you. I am now going to put you into foursomes for the field trip!

A perverted kid said, "Oohhh…this should be interesting!"

Giggles erupted, but immediately stopped when Tsudane walked straight over and dumped him out of the window.

She continued, "The first person called of each group is one of the _sensei_s at this school!!"

While papers rustled, she told Shinomaru, "Oh, thank your dad for supplying our science class with the fruit flies. I have NO idea what we would've done without him."

With all the papers at the front of the room, she started doing a military style group calling. Naruhiko pouted, and whispered to his friends, "She ALWAYS picks on me!"

Hinami smiled, and just said, "Well, I-I think th-that she wants you t-to succeed!"

"Or maybe, Dobe Douji," Sasuke smirked, running his hand through his bangs again, (a girl behind him swooned), "You really do deserve to get picked on."

"Shut up."

"Group 7! Katake Hakashi, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakuma, Uzuto Naruhiko!"

Naruhiko's eye twitched as he glared at Sasuke. The Uchiha was wrinkling his nose. Best friends or not, rivals were rivals, and an overdose of "best friends" in a day for Naruhiko and Sasuke was basically two hours together. Both of them shot a glance at each other...but still had to turn away biting their fingers and laughing. What luck.

Inoue flipped off a smug Sakuma who had her arms crossed.

"Group 8! Kurenai Yuhi, Aburame Shinomaru, Hyuuga Hinami, Inuzuka Daikiba!"

Naruhiko's face turned an ugly color when he heard that Daikiba was with Hinami. He silently warned Daikiba about his promise for taking away Akamaru's manhood. Daikiba could only sweatdrop, while Hinami sighed.

"Group 10! Sarutobi Asuto, Nara Shikamura, Yamanka Inoue, Akimichi Chousu! Head out to the bus!"

Tsudane paused a moment to catch her breath after reading off ten successive groups. She looked down at her paper and looked confused. Instead of "Group 11", it was crossed out and replaced with "Team Guy!!"

Her eye twitching, she slowly uttered, "Okay…'Team Guy!!'…Maito Gai, Hyuuga Nejiro, Tian Tian, Rock Li…"

"OSSU!!!!!!" Li jumped out of his chair and charged out of the door.

Another large voice outside boomed, "Oh, Li! You're coming with me! Sunset time!!"

Nejiro and Tian Tian walked by them as if they didn't exist.

Tsudane decided that she was going to need a LARGE bottle of sake to help herself chill.

**o--------X--------o**

On the bus, Naruhiko groaned, "Aww man! Why do Nejiro and Tian Tian get to be together!? I didn't get to be with Hinami!"

Sakuma looked slightly hurt and peeved at Naruhiko's comment. Annoyed, she said, "Hey, I've been your best friend since preschool, Naruhiko...and I'm a girl too. What was that supposed to mean?"

Clueless about Sakuma's implied meaning, Naruhiko just pouted back, "Well, she's my girlfriend, right?"

Shikamura and Sasuke slapped themselves. Even Shinomaru, who was the most detached from the group, was shaking his head.

"It's all based on smarts, kid…" Hakashi-sensei replied, adjusting his air mask over his face. It was time to solve this "social issue". He was such a paranoid freak about air pollution. "If you haven't noticed, you have one of the lowest grades in the class while Sasuke has one of the highest…"

"STFU, Hakashi-sensei…"

Tsudane barked, "Okay! You're going to the Konohagakure Ruins! This is a FIELD TRIP. I expect you to be on your best behavior. It is said the Konohagakure basically was the predecessor of Sapporo, so I want you to pay extra attention to everything. Even the artists' conceptions of what their buildings looked like back then, okay!? You WILL be writing a large essay on this field trip!"

Somebody groaned, "This is going to be sooooo boring."

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"Nothing..."

Tsudane cleared her throat, took a small bottle from her keychain, and swigged some sake. She glared at everyone, "If ANY of you ditch while on this trip, the consequences WILL be dire. Even worse than that kid I dumped out the window back at class...Yea, I hope he's OK."

Nobody needed to doubt her punishments, and nobody could sue her for anything. They'd all signed a fineprint contract at the beginning of the school year that the school couldn't be sued--or, as any student could say, they'd forgotten to read the fineprint. It was rumored that three years ago, the Health teacher Jiraija-sensei was almost killed from a super-punch when he was peaking in the girl's bathroom. Needless to say, he didn't come back again. (Although Tsudane would NEVER admit that he made more money than the salaries of her job and his previous job editing Playboy magazines these days.)

Tsudane sighed, and emptied her shot bottle. Then she said, "Our ancestors were ninjas, okay?"

There was an awkward silence that filled the bus. Even the teachers were staring at their principle, wondering if she was drunk. The principle raised and eyebrow and harshly asked, "What? Do you want to take a test on the entire morning newspaper instead of this field trip?"

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!" shouted the entire bus. A window in the back broke.

"Umm…okay then…I'll take that as the field trip..."

She sighed again, and then conked the bus driver on the head, "Drive, Hayate, drive!!"

The bus driver coughed and hacked violently--it took a full five minutes before the class was actually able to hit the road.

* * *

"_Damn it, Naruto, listen up!"_

_The blond ninja stopped dancing in his spot for a moment to listen to his Godaime. Even though he'd turned seventeen a month ago, his personality was still as childish as it ever was. But he still couldn't get over the fact that this was a huge mission. The entire Konoha 11 was here, including all the _sensei_s. What could he not be excited over?_

_Tsunade exhaled noisily and with a hard tone, said, "As you heard, I'm putting all of you on an S-rank escort mission to Kirigakure. Team Guy is basically an ANBU unit itself—congrats, by the way, to Tenten, who was inaugurated as an ANBU last week."_

_Tenten nodded happily in her ANBU gear, while everybody applauded quietly._

"_This IS NOT an easy mission. _**Naruto**_," Tsunade emphasized greatly on the boy's name. "I'm also sending in Yamato-_taichou_ to back you up, Naruto, in case _**that**_ ever gets too extreme. You guys are jounin—I expect you to act like one on this mission. I want you to protect our two clients outside this door. They need to import some goods that will help with village repopulate after it was invaded by some Akatsuki."_

"_Right on, Tsunade-baachan!" Naruto saluted, his eyes meeting hers with full determination. He absentmindedly clutched his Hokage necklace and touched the scars that Sasuke had given him so long ago on his chest._

"_Then go."_

_Blurs of all color left._

"_Be safe…Naruto…" Tsunade murmured as she watched the next generation leave._

* * *

**In a Cave Deep in Japan…Present day**

"Good work, Daradei, Tobei…" a husky voice lauded the two henchmen. "It's too bad that Sasoko died though. But he was of good use with his robots. The Mitsue province suffered the worse because of that R2D2 toy bomb he placed in that trashcan a couple of weeks ago."

"Thanks man!! Tobei likes to be a goooooooood boy!" one of the men with an orange mask childishly said in third person.

A blond man with a ponytail groaned, "That, Pein-sama, is what I had to go through while I bombed all those cities. Tobei kept cheering 'Whhheeeee!' while we did this!"

A henchman in the back behind the ponytailed-man said, "Well, Daradei, at least people don't make fun of you for having blue hair and skin."

"Shut up, Kimase. It's not my fault your parents were messed up and gave you a genetic discoloring."

"Shut up yourself. At least I don't look like a girl so that some man actually tried to grope me on the street."

"SHUT UP EVERYBODY!" Pein yelled. Silence.

He continued, "Look, we've lost Itano and Orichimaro already. The first gone to mental insanity, the second to a little kid who somehow was able to defeat a terrorist by accidentally stabbing him with a plastic knife. Don't ask me how. But we're on a good road to domination over Japan. Next task…"

"Hey, how come I don't get to do anything?" somebody whined.

"Look, Hidan. You were actually the one who accidentally caused Sasoko's death with your stupid rants about Jashin. He had to come over and save you, but then got shot by the police."

Daradei proposed, "I guess Hidan COULD do something. We'll just make Kakazu go along with him."

"Good idea," Kakazu stepped out of the shadows, glaring at Hidan, who shivered. "We ARE the zombie twins, afterall. We'll make a goooooood pair replacing Sasoko's robots with mechanical zombies."

Pein said, "Okay, our new parings are: Daradei and Tobei, Hidan and Kakazu, and me and Kimase."

Daradei looked like his was going to die when he heard that he was going to be put with Tobei again. The latter Akuma terrorist just grinned under his mask.

Pein looked at Kimase, who had a list of cities, and asked, "What are we bombing next, and when?"

Kimase grinned, revealing a row of very sharp teeth, and replied, "I had Sendai and Hiroshima planned, but I want to go further north a little. So…Sapporo is next. In about a month or two. Let's let things settle down."

"Good, good…" Pein praised, reclining on a chair. "It's funny how policemen don't see that Akuma DOESN'T strike with a pattern…we totally fooled them with a stupid note."

Tobei childishly chanted, "Sapporo! Sapporo ramen! Sapporo! Sapporo ramen!"

"Tobei? Shut up."

* * *

_**A/N Yea…Chapter 2 is up. I'm telling you, this is NOT a happy story. But DO NOT jump to conclusions on the ending, because it is NOT what you think it will be. I hope you can review. I spent a LONG TIME sneaking time and putting this stuff together in what time I had to do this. I have 18 alerts. Can I get 18 reviews? (I've been bogged down with homework, and the only way I know that this story is worth continuing is if I get reviews). And now, I'm going to die because I've been so busy over Thanksgiving break (on USEFUL things) that I still have an effing lab to complete and a test to study for.**_

_**Heck, I WISH I could get started on DS again…I miss it T-T…**_

_**The first person who reviews this chapter gets a request! Second person is on waiting list! Please look at my LiveJournal and profile for more info!**_

_(1) Literally "Prince Dobe". The names "Naruhiko" and "Naruhito" are normally given to princes and such (I didn't use the latter because there currently IS a Prince Naruhito), so I combined the Japanese word for "prince" with "dobe". _

_(2) Again, another play on words. An "uchiwa" (turned into "uchiha" in "Naruto") is actually a paper fan used to fan over flames—and so I used the paper part of the fan. _

_(3) An "Itano" is sort of like an airplane fight…yea. _


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